Hey all, just thought I'ld post some pics of my modded 1979 Ibanez musician MC200. I did previous mods myself (see before pic), which was basically just replacing the pups with two super 2s and installing the 4 conductor wiring and the three way switch. Brian at www.9mileskid.com has some serious luthier skills and set me up with the full garcia works. check out his link on his site of the radical ibanez makeover to check out what he can do for the full garcia works on ibanez musicians and possibly other guitars. I have been in bands for 10 years now (currently moonshine mountain in northwest montana) and do some dead covers, other covers, and originals, and i have owned over 10 electric guitars. I can personally say that what Brian did to this guitar has made it my new number one and easily the best guitar i have ever owned, and probably have ever played. I have owned an MIA highway one Strat that I put Kinman MK11 pups in (very jerry), cheap Tele's, a Guild Bluesbird, other vintage Ibanez's among other guitars. I play fender tube amps (deluxe reverb reissue with a tone tubby ceramic, blues jr, and a champ). I will never stop playing this guitar. It is as perfect as a guitar can be now. Brian's attention to detail and thoroughness on the finish and the electronics, as well as the fabricated pickup ring/pickguard have transformed this guitar from an ordinary descent guitar into a guitar that could most likely rival any of the jerry clone guitars out there for a fraction of the price. He even corrected some problems on the fretboard by fabricating and installing a new nut that has made the setup and intonation as good as it can be. I am not a huge gear snob, and have always played through professional, yet moderately priced gear, although i do like pickups and speakers. I do have to say that this is so worth the investment. I am writing this as a letter of thanks to Brian for making my music so much better in so many ways and don't mean to sound like an advertisement. I am just so stoked for this axe!

No wonder we havent heard from Brian in awhile - he is busy busy busy !
Looks great - I love it - Brian is a great guy to work with
Guess that means our guitars are related , now !

mkaufman wrote:I see you retained the original Ibanez bridge & tailpiece, yet removed the cloud tailpiece. Was that strictly for cosmetic reasons?

mk

Ya know at 1st I thought it was just a cosmetic piece but recently I read something that suggested it was for improving sustain.
I decided to not use mine too
Mostly so my inlay would fit and look better
You can see the holes where it was attached on mine , too ...
TD

whoops, thought i replied, but no. i removed the tailpiece for weight issues. Musicians are heavy axes. luthiers build heavy guitars in the 70's because they thought weight correlated to sustain and tone, nowadays that is not the case. it still is a hefty guitar, but no 13 pound tiger or anything! my strat still weighs 3 or 4 pounds less.

(currently moonshine mountain in northwest montana) and do some dead covers, other covers, and originals...

Another person from Montana...finally. I thought I was going to be the only one. I'm in Helena. The Dead Head scene here is...well there really isn't one. That's a beautiful guitar...I'll be on the look out for moonshine mountain shows.

tennessee jedi, your axe was the inspiration for me to get mine modded and refinished. I went with the super 2 in the neck, and brian chose the stratoblaster components, which i love. I chose the maple leaf inlay for the maple neck and as a tribute to the hardwoods the guitar is made of in general. other than the neck super 2 and the inlays ,and maybe the nut, they are twins!

i really like the idea of the sds 1 in the neck, but i need the humbucker for other les paul type material, like allman bros, etc.. not that it sounds anything like a les paul, but my axe has to be the jack of all trades up here in NW Montana where southern and classic rock are what people want to hear at the bar. Interesting note about the cloud tailpiece and sustain. i thought it was just an eyesore decoration that made the heavy guitar even heavier. my original musician had the brass/bone nut which was too high off the fretboard, and brian removed it and fabricated a new nut which has made it much smoother and fixed a nagging intonation issue on the first couple of frets. as if the neck thru hippie sandwich wasn't a dead givaway ibanez was trying to copy alembic in the lawsuit era, they put the brass bone nut on to seal the deal. I'm glad they did. i'm also glad they just copied the guitars and not the price tag! the guitars are the perfect "poor man's alembic", although nowadays they are slowly creeping up in value if they are all original. jerry could get the sweetest tone with the brass nut, but my inept fingers would get icepicky highs and super loud out of control notes. I am digging the new nut and set up a ton. I will sell the brass nut and cloud tailpiece on ebay soon. I bet someone will take the nut who has a smoother, more even attack and better technique picking than i do. I used to get out of control on the bridge pup of my chinacaster (Austin fake strat, good guitar for 120 bucks new) with the dimarzio area 61 in the bridge. great pickup and tone, but i had to get the carl martin compressor limiter for leads to help mellow me out and produce a more even volume. it's tough to not get all fired up when you hit the high notes and keep it under control! as for the cloud tailpiece, not so sure anyone wants that but a collector. If anyone needs either of these parts, PM me. I am sort of new to the forum, but will try to get back to you, and i'm not looking to make big money on these esoteric parts no one but us and a few collectors care about.

jester536 wrote:

(currently moonshine mountain in northwest montana) and do some dead covers, other covers, and originals...

Another person from Montana...finally. I thought I was going to be the only one. I'm in Helena. The Dead Head scene here is...well there really isn't one. That's a beautiful guitar...I'll be on the look out for moonshine mountain shows.

hey jester536 and mt jam, good to hear from you guys. i agree that there is a lack of a grateful dead music scene here in mt, but there is still at least some cool music and great people to play with. it was great to see furthur in missoula this fall. first time bobby and phil have played mt since the 70's, i think. moonshine mountain has tried to get in in helena, but no luck yet. I heard miller's landing might be doing music again.

It's actually Miller's CROSSING. The owner goes back and forth on music...a lot! It's a great stage and a real nice room. We've gotten Wednesday nights throughout the summer for the last 2 years. She's (Bonnie Miller) running about 1 show a month right now. She likes to have a band play there called The Growlers...you guys sound real similar but from the brief listening I've done I think you guys are a lot tighter...maybe that could be a selling point for you. Good Luck...hope to see you in Helena sometime.

GeneralGoldilocks wrote:tennessee jedi, your axe was the inspiration for me to get mine modded and refinished. I went with the super 2 in the neck, and brian chose the stratoblaster components, which i love. I chose the maple leaf inlay for the maple neck and as a tribute to the hardwoods the guitar is made of in general. other than the neck super 2 and the inlays ,and maybe the nut, they are twins!

Thats awesome ! Hey Brian is the man - I never thought the axe would come out as good as it has - its a head turner ( get it HEAD turner ? ) - everyone always asks me about it - I bet you are getting the same !
I love playing it - it is pretty heavy though ... but even unplugged it has a nice sound ....
I always thought that the Forum needed a Ibanez Musicians thread .... maybe this can be it ?
There are many Ibby players on the ' Kind - a guitar candy thread is in order !

Finally got the information of all the mods he did to this thing.....First of all he does all his work himself. He's like us, always has the soldering iron out!
The mods he did are just insanely unique (For example he totally bypasses the tone pots so his tone is always "10"), he then uses the tonepots to change from Humbucker to Spilt "single coil" . So the pot all the way to zero is single coil and 10 is Humbucker. He will actually use the pots to "mix" them!!!

.......................................................have you heard the one about the yellow dog?

yeah, murawski is the man. I am from ct originally and was just back there and caught him on my birthday (10/19) in Hartford at the arch street tavern. So amazing growing up I took those guys for granted and caught some awesome shows in my formative years. they started slowing down schedule wise right when jerry died, and probably could have become a lot more successful if they started touring coast to coast then. they just seem so much better than a lot of the other more "successful" jam bands out there today. i guess if they were a huge draw i may not be able to see them in a bar anymore!

really cool to hear about his mods. i was wondering if those were original pups under those covers. they sure sound like it. very tele esque tone on the single coil stuff he plays. I heard one of trey anastasio's original guitars was a pearl white ibanez musician. so jerry, trey, and murawski have all played them at some point. i guess if you are not a huge band like phish or the dead it makes sense to make an ibanez musician your number 1 for cost reasons.